An Accompanying Person
by AdorableElephant
Summary: Something bothered him.  It wasn't Harry.  No, Neville knew Harry was shooting for Ginny and had no intention of stealing Luna away.  It was her.  Neville couldn't help himself but wonder what had been going through her mind when she said yes.


**Title:** An Accompanying Person  
><strong>Author:<strong> AdorableElephant  
><strong>Rating:<strong> K  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Romance {Simply because it is Neville's romantic thinking. Romance seemed to fit best.}  
><strong>Setting &amp; Characters: <strong>Neville in sixth year, Luna in fifth. The Great Hall, breakfast, Holiday break.  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Something bothered him. It wasn't Harry. No, Neville knew Harry was shooting for Ginny and had no intention of stealing Luna away. It was her. Neville couldn't help himself but wonder what had been going through her mind when she said yes.  
><strong>Warning:<strong> This isn't really in the movie world or the book world. I set it in the book world when I was writing it, but I'm in the process of moving and I didn't have my books to check for facts and won't for a while. So I didn't really make much of an effort to keep it real. It's just kind of Harry Potter and that's it.  
><strong>Disclaimer: <strong>I'm not J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything on this page except for the toast they are about to eat. I just toasted it a few minutes ago.

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><p>Neville picked at his eggs and toast in silence. He had a lot on his mind, not like he had anyone to talk to anyway. As he took a jab at a particularly small bit of egg, he thought of the potions essay due as soon as classes resumed. He hadn't written a scratch of it. He thought of his gran, off caring for an ill uncle, the reason he was still at Hogwarts for the holidays. There was the issue of nonverbal spells, which he was no closer to being able to perform than he was to being able to save the wizarding world from impending doom. And then there was, of course, the whole ordeal of…<p>

Neville's head snapped up as his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of feet. It was no strange thing for someone to enter The Great Hall at breakfast of course, even during the holidays when people are scarce around Hogwarts. But the sound of this pair of feet was strange. Instead of the usual _click, small pause, click _of walking, these feet were making the _small click, small click, pause, small click, small click_ of skipping. And there was only one person Neville knew of that did an awful lot of skipping.

His head followed the sound to the girl several feet away from the doors to the hall, moving further away from them every second. She was a fairly small girl, yet someone of healthy size for her age, fifteen. She had pale skin and long, light hair that fell far past her shoulders. Her face appeared porcelain, like one belonging to a fragile doll. The look in her eyes gave the impression that she was lost in a beautiful place that only she could she. Her expression was one of utter peace. Neville continued to watch her skip until she reached her usual spot at the Ravenclaw table, right next to the Gryffindors, sat herself down, and begin to fill a plate.

…her. There was the whole ordeal of her. What was it about her? The fact that she was the most perfect, beautiful girl that he had ever seen? Or was it because she was just… different? Smart. Nice. Understanding. Neville didn't know why it was exactly that he felt this way about her; he just knew that he did. He knew that he had never spent so much time thinking about anything or anyone else, even that time when he lost Trevor for two whole weeks, or the months leading up to his arrival at Hogwarts. Not even then. He knew that he had never wanted acceptance from anyone more than he wanted it from her. He knew that no matter what he did, it hurt him not knowing if she'd even want him as a friend. He didn't know what caused any of these things. Neville was only sure that he wanted nothing more than to spend all the time in the world with Luna Lovegood.

He knew that Harry was taking her to Professor Slughorn's Christmas party; Peeves had made sure everyone knew of that. And he knew that they were only going as friends. But still, something bothered him. It wasn't Harry. No, Neville knew that Harry was shooting for Ginny and had no intention of stealing Luna away. It was her. Neville couldn't help himself but wonder what had been going through her mind when she said yes. He couldn't deny he had spent more time thinking about it than he probably should have. She was Harry's friend, and Harry needed a date- no. Not a _date_. An _accompanying person_. Neville told himself. It was no stranger than when he had asked Ginny to the Yule Ball because he had had no one else to ask, and had known that she had wanted to go. That had meant nothing! Surely, this was exactly the same scenario. But he still thought about it constantly anyway.

Neville had completely neglected his breakfast, now cold, to stare at Luna. She was sitting on the bench nearest to the Gryffindor table, and as Neville was sitting on the bench farthest from the Ravenclaw table, it left him staring at her back, just several yards away. He watched her as she ate. Saw how the tips of her hair pulled higher up her back when she leaned her head forward to take a bite. Saw how her small arm changed position ever so often when her hand grew uncomfortable from holding a small, hardcover book open and upright so that she could read as she ate. Saw how her shoes tapped a short song every once and a while. He could have just sat there and watched her for hours, but it only takes so long to eat a bowl of cereal, some fruit, and a piece of toast. Before long Luna was closing her book and swinging a leg over the bench, preparing to get up to leave.

Not wanting to be caught staring at her for obvious reasons, Neville quickly returned to his own food. He scooped up a pile of eggs and stuck them in his mouth, chewing furiously, and picked up the toast ready for the next bite. But the food had lost its warmth, and with it, its taste long ago and the moment Neville stuck the eggs in, he was dying to spit them back out. He refrained, but instead got a rather repelled look on his face. He knew it too, and couldn't manage to change his expression to a more approachable one before Luna was practically passing right in front of him. She didn't look at him like he was mental. She didn't even giggle. She simply gave him a very Luna-ish smile and said

"Hello Neville."

He gave a small wave and a shy smile in reply, hoping against hope his face hadn't gone red.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> {WARNING: Contains DH part 2 Spoilers} Yeah, so this one didn't really have much of a plot, then again, most of my fics don't really. It's really just a Luneville shipper's cool drink of water. Ever since the movie, I've been fangirling like no other about them because I've always thought they should end up together. So I turned to the best way I know how to express my excitement over literary commotions- fanfiction. It was quite nice to have an idea and be able to let it write itself out again. Anywho, I'd love to hear your thoughts on, complaints for, or reactions to this. I'd especially love thoughts on the ending. I was torn between thinking it was the perfect, cutest, place to stop and thinking that it was really abrupt. The blue button is our mutual friend. (=


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